Trump, Cruz vow to undo Obama environmental work

GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are pledging to undo several Obama administration climate efforts and block future work on global warming if elected this fall. 

In responding to a survey from the American Energy Alliance, both candidates said they would undo major Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency rules on clean water and power plant carbon emissions, with Trump saying, “under my administration, all EPA rules will be reviewed.”

{mosads}Both candidates said they oppose a carbon tax, a policy Obama has praised but not pushed while president. 

“The observed temperature evidence does not support the claims that carbon dioxide is dangerous,” Cruz wrote in his questionnaire. 

The two said they would also reassess the Obama administration’s finding that carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases are harmful to the public. That decision is the basis for EPA rule-making on greenhouse gas emissions. 

“More recent scientific developments indicate that a review of the endangerment finding is needed,” Cruz wrote. 

American Energy Alliance, an industry group, distributed a 10-question survey to each remaining major presidential candidate, including Republican John Kasich and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Only Trump and Cruz responded by Wednesday, the group said. 

“The next president can either continue down a path toward expensive energy, or chart a new course that provides affordable energy and gives the American people more control over their energy choices,” Thomas Pyle, the group’s president, said in a statement.

Cruz and Trump reiterated positions on which they differ. Cruz, for example, opposes the federal ethanol mandate; Trump supports it. Cruz said the federal government should sell some of its land to states or private interests; Trump said he supports a “shared governance structure” between the state and federal government.

“This first step would allow for maintaining the aesthetics of the land while finding ways to gain revenue that would benefit both the federal and state governments,” Trump wrote.

Both candidates have previously said they doubt the science behind climate change and have promised to undo what Obama has done on the issue.